Mostly about my backyard chickens. (Boring, I know), but there are a lot of us out here. Mine are only kept as pampered pets. I could eat a neighbor's chicken, but not MINE. There may be a comment on current events only if I get riled up enough. And there will always be a cartoon or a joke to cheer us. I promise to try my very best to respond to comments. Now I have to figure out how this blogger thingy works....

Brown Marmorated Stink Bug

Halyomorpha halys

The brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB), an insect not
previously seen on our continent, was apparently accidentally introduced
into eastern Pennsylvania. It was first collected in September of 1998
in Allentown, but probably arrived several years earlier.
As of January 2015, Halyomorphahalys has been recorded in the following 49 counties, although it is probable that they are in all counties:

This true bug in the insect family Pentatomidae is known as an
agricultural pest in its native range of China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan.
Recently, the BMSB has become a serious pests of fruit, vegetables and
farm crops in the Mid-Atlantic region and it is probable that it will
become a pest of these commodities in other areas in the United States.
BMSB becomes a nuisance pest both indoors and out when it is
attracted to the outside of houses on warm fall days in search of
protected, overwintering sites. BMSB occasionally reappears during
warmer sunny periods throughout the winter, and again as it emerges in
the spring.

Description

Adults are approximately 17 mm long (25 mm = one inch) and are shades
of brown on both the upper and lower body surfaces (Fig. 1). They are
the typical “shield” shape of other stink bugs, almost as wide as they
are long. To distinguish them from other stink bugs, look for lighter
bands on the antennae and darker bands on the membranous, overlapping
part at the rear of the front pair of wings. They have patches of
coppery or bluish-metallic colored puntures (small rounded depressions)
on the head and pronotum. The name “stink bug” refers to the scent
glands located on the dorsal surface of the abdomen and the underside of
the thorax.
The eggs are elliptical (1.6 x 1.3 mm), light yellow to yellow-red
with minute spines forming fine lines. They are attached, side-by-side,
to the underside of leaves in masses of 20 to 30 eggs.
There are five nymphal instars (immature stages). They range in size
from the first instar at 2.4 mm to the fifth instar that is 12 mm in
length. The eyes are a deep red. The abdomen is a yellowish red in the
first instar and progresses to off-white with reddish spots in the fifth
instar. Protuberances are found before each of the abdominal scent
glands on the dorsal surface. The legs, head and thorax are black.
Spines are located on the femur, before each eye, and several on the
lateral margins of the thorax (Fig. 2).

Figure 1. Adult brown marmorated stink bug.

Figure 2. BMSB nymphs on Trumpet Creeper

Life History

This species probably has a single generation per year in
Pennsylvania depending on the temperatures. Warm spring and summer
conditions could permit the development of two or three generations.
However, in parts of sub-tropical China, records indicate from four to
possibly six generations per year. Adults will emerge sometime in the
spring of the year (late April to mid-May), and mate and deposit eggs
from May through August. The eggs hatch into small black and red nymphs
that go through five molts. Adults begin to search for overwintering
sites starting in September through the first half of October.

Damage

In its native range, it feeds on a wide variety of host plants.
Fruits attacked include apples, peaches, figs, mulberries, citrus fruits
and persimmons. This true bug has also been reported on many ornamental
plants, weeds, soybeans and beans for human consumption. Feeding on
tree fruits such as apple results in a characteristic distortion
referred to as “cat facing,” that renders the fruit unmarketable as a
fresh product.

Apple Damage

This insect is becoming an important agricultural pest in
Pennsylvania. In 2010, it produced severe losses in some apple and peach
orchards by damaging peaches and apples. It also has been found
feeding on blackberry, sweet corn, field corn and soybeans. In neighboring states it has been observed damaging tomatoes, lima beans and green peppers.

Peach and Sweet Corn Damage

These insects can produce allergic reactions (rhinitis and/or
conjunctivitis) in some individuals who are sensitive to the bugs’ odor
(an aeroallergen). These chemicals are produced by dorsal scent glands.
Individuals sensitive to the odors of cockroaches and lady beetles are
also affected by the BMSB. Additionally, if the insects are crushed or
smashed against exposed skin they have been reported to produce
dermatitis at the point of contact. This is particularly important
regarding agricultural workers picking fruits and vegetables.
The stink bug will not reproduce inside structures or cause damages.
If many of them are squashed or pulled into a vacuum cleaner, their
smell can be quite apparent.
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

One Dangerous Job: The Wooden Path up Shifou Mountain

Building
precarious paths along the sides of mountains is one of those jobs that
should qualify both as gainful employment and a dangerous circus act.
Surely
there are few things more dangerous than working thousands of feet in
the air, knowing that one slip of the foot could be a fatal mistake.
The
narrow walkway on Shifou Mountain in Hunan Province, China, is held
together by wooden supports that sit in holes, which must first be
drilled into the face of the mountain.
Of the workers assigned to this perilous task, most are locals who have lived and worked in the mountains all of their lives.
“Young people don’t want this job
as it means we have to stay deep in the mountains for months, sometimes
even years … But I don’t feel it’s so different from any other job.
It’s not as dangerous as people think. You just wear the ropes, and then
everything is okay,” said Ji Yu, 48, who has been doing this type of
work for more than a decade.
Another mountain path along another mountain depicted in the video below is similar, but not quite as long as this one.
When completed, this path will run nearly two miles, making it the longest of its kind in China.
One question remains: Would YOU cross this footpath when it is completed?
To each his own, but insurance rates must be high for those employed in this kind of work.

Hubby took the cinder blocks that I plant the potatoes in and made a circle around it just to get an idea of the size it would be.

Went to Home Depot to get red stones to fill in the middle. Now we need more cinder blocks to make an outer ring around that one. When it's all level, he'll cement everything together. We have a lot of cap stones in the back and they will be placed on top of the blocks. We also bought one of those round stoves to put in the middle of it.

When it's all done, it will be a nice place to sit outside on cool nights. (And make S'mores!)

Monday, September 28, 2015

Kudos to the person that did the editing on this to the Bee Gees' song! Saw this clip when I was looking for old musicals to watch on You Tube. From an era when movie stars had real talent!
I miss those days, don't you? ~ CM

Source from: http://www.biography.com/people/rita-hayworth-9332633

American
film actress Rita Hayworth is best known for her stunning explosive
sexual charisma on screen in films throughout the 1930s and 1940s.

Quotes:

“I always considered myself as a comedienne who could dance.”

—Rita Hayworth

Rita Hayworth - Mini Biography(TV-PG; 3:02)After
Co-starring with Cary Grant in the 1939 film Only Angels Have Wings,
Rita Hayworth was dubbed "The Great American Love Goddess" by LIFE
Magazine. From 1944 to 1947, Hayworth was named one of the top box
office draws in the world.

Synopsis

American
film bombshell Rita Hayworth was born October 17, 1918. Trained as a
dancer, she hit stardom as an actress with her appearance in The Strawberry Blonde (1941). She is best known for her performance in Charles Vidor's Gilda (1946). Her career ended with Ralph Nelson's The Wrath of God (1972). Hayworth died of Alzheimer's disease on May 14, 1987.

Early Years

A
legendary Hollywood actress whose beauty catapulted her to
international stardom in the 1940s and 1950s, Rita Hayworth was born
Margarita Carmen Cansino on October 17, 1918, in New York City. She
changed her last name to Hayworth early on in her acting career on the
advice of her first husband and manager, Edward Judson.
Hayworth
hailed from show business stock. Her father, the Spanish-born Eduardo
Cansino, was a dancer, and her mother, Volga, had been a Ziegfeld
Follies girl. Soon after their daughter was born, they shortened her
name to Rita Cansino. By the time Rita was 12 she was dancing
professionally.
Still a young girl, Rita moved with her family to
Los Angeles and eventually joined her father on the stage in nightclubs
both in the United States and in Mexico. It was on a stage in Agua
Caliente, Mexico, that a Fox Film Company producer spotted the
16-year-old dancer and inked her to a contract.
Rita Cansino, as she was still known, made her film debut in 1935 with Under the Pampas Moon, which was followed by a string of other films including Dante's Inferno (1935) with Spencer Tracy, Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935), Meet Nero Wolfe (1936), and Human Cargo (1936).
In
1937 she married Judson, a man 22 years older than her, who would set
the stage for his young wife's future stardom. On his advice, Rita not
only changed her last name, but also dyed her hair auburn. Judson worked
the phones and managed to get Hayworth plenty of press in newspapers
and magazines, and eventually helped her get a seven-year contract with
Columbia Pictures.

International Star

After
a few disappointing roles in several mediocre films, Hayworth landed an
important role as an unfaithful wife opposite Cary Grant in Only Angels Have Wings (1939). Critical praise came Hayworth's way. So did more movie offers.
Just
two years after the relatively unknown actress shared the screen with
Grant, Hayworth was a star herself. Her stunning, sensual looks greatly
helped, and that year Life magazine writer Winthrop Sargeant nicknamed Hayworth "The Great American Love Goddess."
The
moniker stuck, and only helped further her career and the fascination
many male movie fans had with her. In 1941 Hayworth took the screen
opposite James Cagney in Strawberry Blonde. That same year she shared the dance floor with Fred Astaire in You'll Never Get Rich. Astaire later called Hayworth his favorite dance partner.
The following year Hayworth starred in three more big films: My Gal Sal, Tales of Manhattan, and You Were Never Lovelier.
Hayworth's high-voltage power of seduction was affirmed in 1944 when a photograph of her in Life magazine wearing black lace became the unofficial pin-up photo for American servicemen serving overseas in World War II.
For
her part, Hayworth didn't shy away from the attention. "Why should I
mind?" she said. "I like having my picture taken and being a glamorous
person. Sometimes when I find myself getting impatient, I just remember
the times I cried my eyes out because nobody wanted to take my picture
at the Trocadero."
Her stardom peaked in 1946 with the film Gilda,
which cast her opposite Glenn Ford. A favorite of film noir fans, the
film was chock-full of sexual innuendo, which included a controversial
(tame by today's standards) striptease by Hayworth.
The following year she starred in another film noir favorite, The Lady From Shanghai, which was directed by her then-husband, Orson Welles.
Hayworth starred in more than fifteen films in the two decades following The Lady From Shanghai, including Miss Sadie Thompson (1953), Pal Joey (1957), Separate Tables (1958), and Circus World (1964) for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination.

Failed Loves

Hayworth's
marriage to Welles in 1943 and subsequent divorce from the director and
actor in 1948 garnered plenty of press. It was Hayworth's second
marriage, and with Welles she had a daughter, Rebecca.
It was during the filming of The Lady From Shanghai
that Hayworth filed for divorce from Welles. In court documents she
claimed, "he showed no interest in establishing a home. When I suggested
purchasing a home, he told me he didn't want the responsibility. Mr.
Welles told me he never should have married in the first place; that it
interfered with his freedom in his way of life."
But Hayworth had
also met and fallen in love with Prince Aly Khan, whose father was the
head of the Ismaili Muslims. A statesman and a bit of a playboy, Khan
eventually served as Pakistan's representative to the United Nations.
Hayworth
and Khan married in 1949 and had a daughter together, Princess Yasmin
Aga Khan. After divorcing Khan after just two years of marriage,
Hayworth later married and divorced the singer Dick Haymes. Her fifth
and final marriage was to movie producer James Hill.

Later Years

As
her personal life was dogged by turmoil, her acting career sputtered.
Periodic film roles did come her way, but they failed to capture magic
and project the kind of star power her earlier work once had. In all,
Hayworth appeared in more than 40 films, the last of which was the 1972
release The Wrath of God.
In 1971 she briefly attempted a
stage career, but it was quickly halted when it was apparent that
Hayworth was unable to memorize her lines.
Hayworth's diminished
skills as an actress were largely chalked up to what many believed was a
severe alcohol problem. Her deteriorating state made headlines in
January 1976 when the actress, appearing disheveled and out of sorts,
was escorted off a plane.
That same year a California court, citing Hayworth's alcohol issues, named an administrator for her affairs.
But
alcohol was only one of the factors ruining her life. Hayworth was also
suffering from Alzheimer's disease, which doctors diagnosed her as
having in 1980. A year later she was placed under the care of her
daughter, Princess Yasmin, who used her mother's condition as a catalyst
for increasing awareness of Alzheimer's disease. In 1985, Yasmin helped
organize Alzheimer's Disease International, and eventually helmed the
group as its president.
After years of struggle Hayworth died on
May 14, 1987, in the apartment she shared with her daughter in New York
City. Her passing elicited an outpouring of appreciation from fans and
fellow actors.
"Rita Hayworth was one of our country's most
beloved stars," President Ronald Reagan said upon hearing of Hayworth's
death. "Glamorous and talented, she gave us many wonderful moments on
the stage and screen and delighted audiences from the time she was a
young girl. Nancy and I are saddened by Rita's death. She was a friend
whom we will miss."

The Lone Ranger and Tonto walked into a saloon and sat down to drink
a beer.

After a few minutes, a big tall cowboy walked in and said "Who owns
the big white horse outside?"
The Lone Ranger stood up, hitched his gun belt, and said "I
do....why?"

The cowboy looked at the Lone Ranger and said, "I just thought you’d
like to know that your
horse is about dead outside!"

The Lone Ranger and Tonto rushed outside and sure enough, Silver was
ready to die from heat exhaustion.
The Lone Ranger got the horse water and soon Silver was starting to
feel a little better.

The Lone Ranger turned to Tonto and said, "Tonto, I want you to run
around Silver and see if you
can create enough of a breeze to make him start to feel better."
Tonto said, "Sure, Kemosabe" and took
off running circles around Silver.

Not able to do anything else but wait, the Lone Ranger returned to
the saloon to finish his drink.

A few minutes later, another cowboy struts into the bar and asks,
"Who owns that big white horse outside?"
The Lone Ranger stands again, and claims, "I do, what's wrong with
him this time?"

It's that time of year again for Hubby and I to go get our apples. We always buy from a local farm that has wonderful orchards full of different varieties. They have free hayrides to get there and you can pick them yourself. This year we just bought from the stand. Of course, we bought home 1/2 gallon of their own home made chilled apple cider. It is soooo good!

This is one of the best run farms in New Jersey. And it's only 5 minutes from our house!

They have several large herds of dairy cows, too.

Hubby walking up to the farm stand:

They have petting zoo for kids that have never seen a cow....

or a chicken....

or a goat.

There was a big bus parked on the side loaded with city kids. They were so cute to watch as they petted the animals. There was even a corn maze for them to try their luck in. We got such a kick hearing them squeal with delight!

Friday, September 25, 2015

Ohio Match Company #3 is seen here in Garwood, Washington during July of 1937. This Climax is a Class B model.

The origins of the Climax are credited to Charles
Darwin Scott who worked at sawmills located in Spartansburg,
Pennsylvania. Around 1878 he began experimenting with his
geared-locomotive design that could be put to practical use in logging
applications, similar to the Shay which was first sold in 1880. After
believing he had a useful design, Scott decided to market
it to the Climax Manufacturing Company whose plant was located less
than 10 miles away in Corry, Pennsylvania (the company was soon renamed
as the Climax Locomotive Works after it began producing locomotives on a
large-scale basis). A prototype was completed in March of 1888 and
sold to Imel, Powers & Shank who had logging operations near
Scandia, Pennsylvania at Hodge Run in Warren County.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

More information on the Heisler steam engine can be found here:http://gearedsteam.com/heisler/heisler.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ALCO
#17
- Rod Locomotive

(MIKADO 2-8-2T)

Soon
after delivery of the locomotive to the Crossett Western Company of
Wauna, OR in 1929, much of the Crossett timber lands were involved in
the series of major forest fires known as the Tillamook Burn. The little
saddle tank engine worked throughout the 1930’s and early 40’s
hauling out the salvaged timber from the burn.

In
1942 the locomotive was sold to the Hammond Lumber Co. of Samoa CA. and
renumbered as #17. Once again fire played an important role in
it’s life when, in 1945, a large fire burned out a series of trestles
while the locomotive was sitting in a woods logging camp known as “The
Gap” It was determined that the cost to rebuild the trestles was too
great and #17 was left sitting in the middle of the camp unused for
years.

In
1965 a local mill owner named Gus Peterson purchased #17 from its
current owner Georgia Pacific. Mr. Peterson built a road into the
old campsite, dismantled the engine and trucked it out piece-by-piece.
Mr. Peterson quickly went to work reassembling and restoring her to
operation. On September 27, 1966 #17 operated under her own power for
the first time since the forest fire of 1945 and for the next few years
operated on Mr. Peterson’s tourist line known as the Klamath &
Hoppow Valley RR.

The
gasoline shortages of the 1970’s spelled the end of the Klamath &
Hoppow Valley and the #17 was mothballed again. In 1980 it, along with 2
other locomotives were sold to Tacoma lumberman Tom Murray Jr. Mr.
Murray had the 17 disassembled and shipped by truck to Tacoma, WA. and
then sent on to the shops of the Mount Rainier Scenic RR.

During
the 80’s the #17 sat outside the shops while restoration work on other
locomotives progressed. Work finally began in 1994 and finally in
January 1995 a fire was lit in the #17’s boiler and she joined the
other operating locomotives of the Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad. To
this day she is a mainstay of the summer operations of the Railroad.

Thursday, September 24, 2015

As you probably know by now, I am a big fan of Google Earth. I like to "visit" places all over the world and look for old or odd buildings.
I found this one in Indianapolis. It takes up an entire city block!

One side is painted to look like the rest of the building - first time I have seen this in ages.

The stonework is just beautiful - wish I could have been able to zoom in closer.

Another angle of the painted side:

The stained glass windows must be beautiful from the inside when the sun shines through them.

About Me

Mostly about my backyard chickens (Boring, I know), but there are a lot of us out here. Mine are only kept as pampered pets. I could eat a neighbor's chicken, but not MINE. There may be a comment on current events only if I get riled up enough. And there will always be a cartoon or a joke to cheer us. I promise to try my very best to respond to comments. Now I have to figure out how this blogger thingy works....